1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to transport protocols used in delivering real-time multimedia data such as audio and video data.
2. Art Background
The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a transport layer protocol commonly used in delivering real-time multimedia data such as audio and video data. Each data packet contains a UDP header and a payload. The UDP header contains a checksum field designed to protect the integrity of the entire data payload. Unfortunately, when an error is detected, the entire payload may be tossed out. If the data payload in the UDP packet contains multiple independent data segments, the undamaged segments will be tossed out as well. This either will increase network congestion by causing the sending device to resend the lost data, or will decrease the quality of the multimedia presentation since the lost data creates noticeable gaps in audio and/or video transmission.